Today was magical. A group of us, coming together. Stretching, setting intentions, laughing, praying, learning, engaging and eating… All while watching a sustainable cuisine workshop while we build our eco village. Just magical. I love us.
Sister Maria Muhammad
Build Build Build… was the model of the 2022 annual freedom village meeting. Kicking off a year of amazing building projects. It’s a jump start to the Freedom Village Georgia into the black town that we all have dreamed it can be. Ahead of the sprint are brother David and sister Maria Mohammed. Being the absolute first to take everything they own from California and move across the entirety of the country to Georgia to become the first full-family residents of the freedom village Georgia. But they didn’t stop there.
Instead, they began to recruit. Pulling in friends and family from Baltimore to California to purchase over 11 lots and side of the freedom village Georgia. In the most admirable and forward-thinking manner, the couple understood the necessity to combine the efforts of the willing, the excellent, and those deeply seeking the success of their dreams. The Grove at Freedom Village Georgia would become the first independently inspired idea of a sustainable village that would establish itself within the structure of the Freedom Nation and the Freedom Village Georgia. In no uncertain terms, the couple understood that Freedom Nation is an environment builder, not a dictatorship. It is meant to act and is no different than the city where several villages and communities can flourish both independently and conjunctively in collaboration with the ideas of the whole.
I’m just the type of person who likes to get the work done. I am not going to sit around and wait for things to happen. I make things happen
David Muhammad
But David Muhammad is no stranger to working inside a group of black people to achieve amazing things. Originally from Baltimore MD, David served as a Captain in the Fruit of Islam’s organized and disciplined structure within the Nation of Islam. Always willing to do what was necessary to push forward his thoughts and his ideals, brother David started out as a young man selling newspapers with the willingness to execute tasks that required minutia and those that required a senior level of thought and strategy. His wife Maria, joined him early in their battle for black equality and has and is an amazing fighter and worker for promoting causes of black excellence.
“I’m just the type of person who likes to get the work done. I am not going to sit around and wait for things to happen. I make things happen” said Brother David Muhammad during his presentation for joining the Village Council of the Freedom Village. As a seasoned community organizer, brother David knows full well that it requires a leader to set an example to get others to pitch in. After moving to Freedom Village with his family and all his possessions brother David has been active in Hancock County working to establish a basic presence and an understanding of the needs of the community at large.
The courage and the quickness to movement displayed by brother David and sister Maria have been personified and acknowledged by the citizens of Freedom Village by first electing brother David to the Village Council of our Freedom Village Georgia 1 and then later by electing him as the first mayor of Freedom Village Georgia. And it is with that banner that mayor David Muhammad collected and gathered people from the community of the Grove at Freedom Village and organized the raising of the first permanent purpose-built structures in the village.
Mayor Muhammad purchased lot 1 for the Grove at freedom village to create the first general stores, farmers market, and welcome center for those coming into the village. Village rules mandate that only Freedom Nation Citizens and their guests can enter the village itself. By opening up lot 1 to the visitor center mayor Muhammad not only facilitated a building project for the Grove but also gave a gift to all visiting members of the village from now and as long as the structure stand. With less than half the lot cleared, the Grove at Freedom Village’s welcome center is a demonstration of exactly how large 1.25 acres is.
Currently, there are five more projects that are being built off-site to be installed at Freedom Village Georgia in October of 2023. One of the dedicated Village Council members, sister Nina Shabazz, has led the way in both volunteering to help build the welcome center along with Mayor David Muhammad and to purchase her home from the freedom builders purchasing program, to be located in the lot next to lot 1. Council Member Shabazz named the first five builders of homes in the Freedom Village “The Foundational Five”. As yet another servant leader, she put her money where her mouth was, and despite over 20 years of city planning and very organized planning of her resources, she took the leap necessary to be one of the first people to work within the processes and the programs that have been developed in the Freedom Village to grow it into a city of black excellence.
Nothing short of amazing, the 2023 town hall meeting in Hancock County is shaping up to be a very special event. where citizens from all around the country will converge when Hancock County and be some of the first people to walk into the finished welcome center thanks to the efforts of the amazing Freedom Nation Citizens and the pioneering members of the Village Council.
